Trailing arm mounts

[C43]

Hi

question about the mounting bolts (M8 I think) that hold the trailing arm rubber bush onto the chassis. On my brothers S2 I am sure these bolts screwed into threads on the chassis. On a S3 turbo is there are no threads on the chassis, the M8 bolts have a nut behind them. This is fine at the moment as I am working on a bare chassis but once the engine goes in and the body is fitted these nuts are going to be a right pain to access if I need to get to them to change the shims when I am setting rear toe. Should they be into threaded inserts on a S3 turbo does anyone know?

ta

Christian 

[andydclements]

It's a long while since I've done an, but don't the bolts go in from the engine side?In which case, no problem. Irrespective of the direction, no there are no threaded inserts.

[Steve4012]

Hi Christian, here's a pic of my 81 Turbo which is also the same as shown in the parts manual. 

[C43]

thanks Steve, mine is the same. I was hoping to put captive M8s there to make it easier to change toe shim.

regards

Christian

[andydclements]

I think captive is more awkward. You then have to get the bolt through, whilst rotating it and get it to lock into the thread of the captive nut. With loose nuts, you get bolt in place, supporting the bush etc, then just align nut to the bolt.

[C43]

Its aligning the nut on the bolt that I think you will struggle with when the engine is in place unless you have the car on a ramp. I'll have a play and see what I come up with. 

 

[RichardJGC]

The later cars (V8's) utilised a 'u' shaped strip with 2 welded nuts to make things easier. 

I was considering going down this route but unfortuntely that part is no longer available.

[Barrykearley]

https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/C079D4013F.htm

[CHANGES]

That's the retaining plate..  Richard was referring to the Nut plates... But if unavailable they are easy to to make.. 

On 26/02/2018 at 15:00, andydclements said:

I think captive is more awkward. You then have to get the bolt through, whilst rotating it and get it to lock into the thread of the captive nut. With loose nuts, you get bolt in place, supporting the bush etc, then just align nut to the bolt.

I  think this more depends on individual assembly methods .. I much prefer the captive nut set up..  The initial application of putting the nut / bolt  together is much the same . But as Christian stated it is a dam site easier when shimming the rear track.  That is taking it that you are using the late spec split shims rather than the one piece disassembly type..   For the extra effort of using the later spec and captive equipment you can save a lot of labour cost on your annual GEO check if it needs resetting..  

[Barrykearley]

Shims on mine are split in half - so you just loosen the bolt and slide it into place. Think I’m missing something here

[RichardJGC]

 Hi Barry

Part 38 on the diagram is the bit i’m after.

[Barrykearley]

Can’t even remember that bit.... there was loads of pieces that I laid out when I stripped mine off. 

What I do know is it’s a nut and a bolt on that whole lump of stuff on mine

Although -now I’m feeling a bit unsure..... I will look later on as I’m hopefully ripping this apart either today or tomorrow